Overview

Health risk factors are attributes, characteristics or exposures that increase the likelihood of a person developing a disease or health disorder. Examples of health risk factors include risky alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and high blood pressure. High-quality information on health risk factors is important in providing an evidence base to inform health policy, program and service delivery.

This fact sheet covers local-level results for the proportion of Australian adults (aged 18 years and over) who reported consuming more than 2 standard drinks of alcohol per day on average—thereby increasing their lifetime risk of harm from alcohol consumption. Results are presented by Primary Health Network (PHN) areas.

Please note, the results presented are crude rates, which reflect the actual level of lifetime risky alcohol consumption in the community. However, caution is needed when making comparisons across PHNs as the rates presented do not account for differences in the age of the populations.

What is lifetime risky alcohol consumption?

Alcohol consumption refers to the consumption of drinks containing ethanol, commonly referred to as alcohol. The quantity, frequency or regularity with which alcohol is drunk provides a measure of the level of alcohol consumption.

Lifetime risky alcohol consumption refers to Australian adults consuming more than 2 standard drinks per day on average. That is, alcohol consumption exceeding the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol (see Box 1 for more information).

Based on survey data from 2014–15, 17.4% of Australian adults reported lifetime risky alcohol consumption.

The NHMRC’s guidelines for alcohol consumption provide advice on reducing the risks to health from drinking alcohol.

Healthy men and women are advised to consume:

no more than 2 standard drinks of alcohol per day, to reduce their lifetime risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury

no more than 4 standard drinks on a single occasion, to reduce their risk of alcohol-related injury arising from that occasion.

What is a Primary Health Network?

Primary Health Networks (PHNs) are organisations that connect health services over local geographic areas. There are 31 PHNs in Australia. Due to the availability of robust and reliable data at PHN area-level, results for 28 PHN areas are reported in this fact sheet.

Variation across metropolitan and regional PHN areas

In 2014–15, the proportion of adults who had lifetime risky alcohol consumption across all regional PHN areas was 20.4%. For all metropolitan PHN areas, this proportion was 15.9%.

The five PHN areas with the highest proportion of adults reporting lifetime risky alcohol consumption were all in regional areas (Figure 1).

Conversely, four of the five PHN areas with the lowest proportion of adults with lifetime risky alcohol consumption were in metropolitan locations.

Data for South Western Sydney and South Eastern NSW should be interpreted with caution, as the estimates have a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution.

††

Data for the Northern Territory should be interpreted with caution, as 25% of the population live in very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and are therefore excluded from the survey.

Quick facts

Over half of Australian adults (56.4%) did not meet the recommended level of physical activity.

Overall, a higher proportion of adults in regional PHN areas (62.4%) did not meet the recommended level of physical activity, compared with adults in metropolitan PHN areas (53.3%).

This fact sheet covers local-level results for the proportion of Australian adults (18 years and over) who reported insufficient levels of physical activity. Results are presented by Primary Health Network (PHN) areas.

Please note, the results presented are crude rates, which reflect the actual level of insufficient physical activity in the community. However, caution is needed when making comparisons across PHNs as the rates presented do not account for differences in the age of the populations.

What is insufficient physical activity?

Physical activity is the expenditure of energy generated by moving muscles in the body. Most physical activity occurs during leisure time, or through active transport and incidental activity such as housework or gardening.

This includes adults (18–64 years) who did not complete more than 150 minutes of physical activity, on at least 5 sessions over a week, and older Australians (65+ years) who did not complete 30 minutes of activity on at least 5 days.

Based on self-reported survey data from 2014–15, 56.4% of Australian adults had insufficient levels of physical activity.

Primary Health Networks (PHNs) are organisations that connect health services over local geographic areas. There are 31 PHNs in Australia. Due to the availability of robust and reliable data at PHN area-level, results for 28 PHN areas are reported in this fact sheet.

Variation across metropolitan and regional PHN areas

In 2014–15, the proportion of adults with insufficient physical activity levels across all regional PHN areas was 62.4%, compared with 53.3% for all metropolitan PHN areas.

Four of the five PHN areas with the highest proportion of adults with insufficient physical activity levels were in regional locations (Figure 1).

The five PHN areas with the lowest proportion of adults with insufficient physical activity levels—that is, they were most active—were all in metropolitan, capital city locations.

Data for Western NSW should be interpreted with caution, as the estimate has a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution.

††

Data for the Northern Territory should be interpreted with caution, as 25% of the population live in very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and are therefore excluded from the survey.

This fact sheet covers local-level results for the proportion of Australian adults (aged 18 years and over) who had high blood pressure and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Results are presented by Primary Health Network (PHN) areas.

Please note, the results presented are crude rates, which reflect the actual level of high blood pressure in the community. However, caution is needed when making comparisons across PHNs as the rates presented do not account for differences in the age of the populations.

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is defined in this fact sheet by the World Health Organization definition (see Box 1 for more information).

Uncontrolled high blood pressure as defined here refers to all people with measured high blood pressure, regardless of whether they are taking medication. It is presented for context in this fact sheet.

High blood pressure is an important and treatable cause of disease and death. It is a major risk factor for chronic diseases including stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure and chronic kidney disease.

The modifiable risk factors for high blood pressure include poor diet (particularly high salt intake), obesity, excessive alcohol consumption and insufficient physical activity. Lifestyle changes and medication can help to control high blood pressure.

Based on survey data from 2014–15, 33.7% of Australian adults had high blood pressure. There were 23.0% of Australian adults who had uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Box 1 Defining high blood pressure

The World Health Organization defines high blood pressure as including any of the following:

systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mmHg

diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 90 mmHg

receiving medication for high blood pressure.

Variation across metropolitan and regional PHN areas

In 2014–15, the proportion of adults with high blood pressure across all regional PHN areas was 39.3%, compared with 30.9% for all metropolitan PHN areas.

The five PHN areas with the highest proportion of adults with high blood pressure were all in regional locations (Figure 1).

Conversely, the five PHN areas with the lowest proportion of adults with high blood pressure were all in metropolitan locations, with the exception of the Northern Territory. This was also seen in the proportion of adults with uncontrolled high blood pressure (Figure 2).

Rates in individual PHNs reflect the age profile of the population in the community, as age is a strong risk factor for high blood pressure. For example, the proportion of adults aged 45 and over in Western Sydney and Central and Eastern Sydney was around 45% compared to South Eastern NSW and Tasmania where the proportion of adults aged 45 and over was closer to 60%. Please see the Health risk factors in 2014–15 Excel download for more information.

Figure 1: Proportion of adults with high blood pressure and uncontrolled high blood pressure, by metropolitan and regional Primary Health Network area, 2014–15

Data for the Northern Territory should be interpreted with caution, as 25% of the population live in very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and are therefore excluded from the survey.

Data for the Northern Territory should be interpreted with caution, as 25% of the population live in very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and are therefore excluded from the survey.